Pelissier Street parking garage offered up by City of Windsor

The City of Windsor will start accepting expression of interest proposals for the Pelissier Street parking garage, starting in November.

Council approved the guidelines for the expression of interest last night.

Chair of the BIA Larry Horwitz was at council to make some suggestions. He said the terms have too many roadblocks like asking a potential developer to to fix up the space, pay property taxes, utilities and share revenue with the city.

Council disagreed and voted keep the expression of interest terms the same. Council did extend the submission period from 30 to 90 days.

"There's lots of folks that have different ideas, but at the end of the day it's going to cost money to retrofit that space and put it back to good productive use and the person who's coming forward or the corporation that's going to come forward is going to have to spend some money," Mayor Drew Dilkens said. "But, we're willing to be partners there and find a way to make it work so that's it's good for everyone."

Dilkens called the space a "blue sky opportunity."

"Any person, organization, corporation [can] come forward and say, 'We've got a way to develop this space that's going to animate the street and keep commercial opportunities in that space. Here's how much it will cost,'" Dilkens said. "Present that proposal to us, and we'll have a conversation to see if it's actually workable."